Cool Places
The Nine Ladies Stone Circle
Stanton Moor, Stanton in Peak, Youlgreave, Derbyshire DE4 2LS
One of around 70 prehistoric standing stones on Stanton Moor, this early-Bronze-Age stone circle is supposed to depict nine naughty ladies, who were turned to stone as a penalty for dancing on Sunday. Though interestingly, it's actually made up of 10 stones – one was discovered in 1977, but the name stuck anyway. You can do a short but lovely walk there from the nearby village of Birchover – around 3 miles in all – taking in some of the best of Stanton Moor itself, with its expansive views, slopes of bracken and heather, the odd bit of woodland – and of course those ancient stones, one of which was mentioned by Dickens in the Pickwick Papers.
